Tagetes lucida Cav. essential oil and the mixture of its main compounds are antibacterial and modulate antibiotic resistance in multi-resistant pathogenic bacteria

Abstract

Significance and Impact of the Study: To contribute to fighting antimicrobial resistance to antibiotics, we evaluated an essential oil (EO) of Tagetes lucida and the mixture of its main compounds (PREO) against multi-drug resistant bacteria. The EO and the PREO have antibacterial activity and modulate antibiotic resistance in Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Also, we overcame the natural unpredictability of the EOs activity by determining which EO components inhibited bacteria and then producing a consistent PREO with predictable antibacterial and modulatory antibiotic resistance activity. To our knowledge, this is the first time that this procedure has generated a reconstituted blend with predictable effects from EOs.